Why are flights delayed?

If you’ve been flying since the pandemic, you’ve likely experienced at least one flight delay or cancellation during your trip. It seems that these situations occur more often than before the pandemic.

Data provided by Flight knowledge shows that, in general, things are almost as they are. However, the delay is still frustrating. From January 1 to April 9, this year, 21.9% of flights in the United States were delayed, with an average delay of 50 minutes each, compared with the same period in 2019.

There are many reasons for flight delays. Sometimes it’s things the airlines can’t control, such as scheduling and staffing, and sometimes it’s due to random events, such as the weather.

Here are some reasons why flights are delayed.

Weather

This may seem obvious, but the weather largely disrupts flights, even indirectly. The data shows that weather-related delays accounted for more than 25% of flight delays in January, the latest month for which the Department of Transportation has data available.

Especially in spring and summer, there are often thunderstorms across the country due to unstable air humidity. Winter weather can hamper operations for days.

Weather events alone contribute to flight chaos. However, more extreme weather patterns due to climate change has resulted in more turbulent flights year roundwith an increase in certain months.

For example, turbulence contributed to 71% of all in-flight weather injuries between 2000 and 2011 globally, according to data from National Traffic Safety Board. The data shows that February, July and December are the most turbulent months.

Because turbulence can be severe, airlines do their best to avoid it by rerouting flights around thunderstorms. This causes restrictions in the airspace and leads to more delays.

“Airlines try to avoid turbulence as much as possible, which often results in longer flight times and longer wait times,” said Isabel Smith, a third-year PhD. students at the University of Reading study aircraft turbulence. “As a result, airlines use more fuel and therefore release more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.”

Even so, it is not always possible to avoid bad weather because the most disturbing form of turbulence, fresh air, is undetectable to aircraft flight radar equipment. This means it can strike an aircraft unexpectedly without warning.

In addition to slowing down directly affected flights, thunderstorms can interfere with flight paths, affecting the ability of other flights to take off and land. In a domino effect, this can also lead to ramp closures as aircraft cannot be loaded, unloaded, refueled, or serviced.

Summer travel tends to be particularly disrupted. According to FlightAware data, 22.3% of flights (more than half a million) were delayed between Memorial Day and Labor Day last year, with causes including frequent thunderstorms.

Meteorologists can often predict major snow events days in advance, allowing carriers to prepare by adjusting their flight schedules. However, summer thunderstorms are more difficult to predict in precise time and place.

The busy summer travel season only increases the likelihood of flight delays during the summer months.

Flight schedule and personnel

Ongoing staffing issues and plane shortages due to the pandemic have become another cause of flight delays in the United States. This makes it especially difficult for pilots.

Although there are fewer flights now than in 2019, some airlines are still grappling with staff and aircraft cuts. This makes meeting the airlines’ ambitious schedules quite a feat. This is further complicated by weather and other operational issues.

This means fewer spare aircraft and crews to help with recovery operations. Having enough staff can be the key difference between an airline rescheduled within hours and an airline having to mass cancel flights during a multi-day recovery mission.

Fuller flights also mean airlines have fewer options to deal with unusual activities like extreme weather. Flights departing the next day may already be sold out, so it will take longer to accommodate everyone as cancellations start to increase.

This exact situation came to light at Christmas when cross-country winter storm Elliott strike during a time when tourism is already notoriously busy. Every major US aircraft carrier is affected the result is an interruptionBut Southwest Airlines, in particular, could not recover in the following weeks. This marked the largest operational crisis in the history of the Southwest.

four months later, the Dallas-based airline canceled nearly 17,000 flights over the spring break that led to improvements in winter operations and modernization of outdated technology by the amount of $1.3 billion. It bought more defrosting trucks, engine covers and heaters in addition to hiring more winter staff. The airline also committed to upgrading crew schedules and customer phone systems to handle higher call volumes.

The Southwest Activity Crisis is a recent example of what happens when weather and airline activity collide, creating a perfect storm.

Problems can also arise when crew members are delayed on multiple flights during the day, causing them to reach the maximum allowed duty hours before the end of all flights they take. scheduled work.

While this can be an uncomfortable situation for passengers, business hours rules promote safety. They are intended to avoid the risk of pilots becoming overtired and flight attendants making fatigue errors. This mainly affects flights late in the day, so making flights earlier is one way to minimize the risk of this particular delay.

In addition to airlines, the nation’s air traffic control system, the Federal Aviation Administration, is also under strain due to insufficient staffing of air traffic control facilities, such as outlined by US airlines in one call government last June.

Staff reduction at ATC facilities can have a negative impact operating performance. For safety reasons, sometimes fewer flights can pass through certain areas or land at airports, so delays on all carriers can add up at once.

At least one industry expert holds ATC and the FAA responsible for the airline’s continued delays.

“The underlying cause of delays is random and transient demand for ATC services that exceeds the FAA’s ability to ensure safety,” said Robert Mann, analyst and airline industry owner. secure and isolated without delay, on the flight path, in the terminal area and on the airport surface”. of a consulting firm of the same name, said. “Instead, if airlines and business operators optimize the system during the day of their flight operations, that would help the FAA achieve its goals of safety and segregation, while much of this delay can be avoided, increasing airline costs and customer inconvenience.”

Technical issue

Of course, there are unexpected technical problems that can affect a smooth and timely flight.

During pre-flight checks, pilots, technicians or other support personnel may notice that something is not working properly. For example, there may be an indicator light that won’t turn on due to a broken light or button. There may be an overhead locker that is not properly secured or an emergency device that is not set up properly. Or, there could be a problem indicating something more serious, such as a problem with the flight control system.

Sometimes, depending on the problem and the airport, the airline’s on-site maintenance technicians can quickly diagnose and fix the problem if needed.

Other times, these problems may not be fixed at the gate and may require a change of aircraft. If that’s the case, you’re looking at a more significant delay. Ideally, you’re at one of the airline’s hubs and have a spare plane on hand to switch seats. If this is not the case, you can consider the possibility of a longer delay when a new aircraft is located and arrives. Flights may even be canceled altogether.

This can be so frustrating, but safety is the name of the game, so this is just one of the realities of air travel.